1. Mine
eye and heart are at a mortal war,
2. How to divide the conquest of thy sight;
3. Mine eye my heart thy picture's sight would bar,
4. My heart mine eye the freedom of that right.
5. My heart doth plead that thou in him dost lie,
6. A closet never pierced with crystal eyes,
7. But the defendant doth that plea deny,
8. And says in him thy fair appearance lies.
9. To 'cide this title is impannelled
10. A quest of thoughts, all tenants to the heart;
11. And by their verdict is determined
12. The clear eye's moiety, and the dear heart's part:
13. As thus: mine eye's due is thine outward part,
14. And my heart's right, thine inward love of heart.

These
two sonnets, 46 & 47, debate
the respective merits of the heart's and the eyes' claim to be the sole
possessor of the beloved. In 46 they are at mortal war. In 47 they have
evidently signed a pact. The whole thing is an amusing mix of
psychological
and physiological ideas which do not really add up, but it is held
together
here by the terminology of the courtroom. The eye and the heart are
bound
over to enjoy their own appropriate portion.

The quarrel between
eyes and heart (or mind) for
dominion in love's realm was traditional. The eye was believed to hold
the
image, but the heart was responsible for feeling and emotion. Compare
for
example sonnets 19 and 20 by Thomas Watson in the Tears
of Fancie (1593). The two
sonnets are printed
below.

THE
1609 QUARTO VERSION

46

M

Ine eye and heart
are at a mortall
warre,
How to deuide the conqueſt of thy ſight,

Mine
eye,my heart their pictures
ſight would barre,
My heart,mine eye the freeedome of that right,
My heart doth plead that thou in him dooſt lye,
(A cloſet neuer pearſt with chriſtall eyes )
But the defendant doth that plea deny,
And ſayes in him their faire appearance lyes.
To ſide this title is impannelled
A queſt of thoughts,all tennants to the heart,
And by their verdict is determined
The cleere eyes moyitie,and the deare hearts part.
As thus,mine eyes due is their outward part,
And my hearts right,their inward loue of heart.

Two
extracts from the plays give different
views, but the debate was not entirely serious, despite the depth and
occasional
desperation of the emotions which engendered it.

Love looks
not with the eyes, but with themind;
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind:
Nor hath Love's mind of any judgement taste;
Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste: MND.I.i.234-7

Tell me
where is fancy bred, Or in the heart or in the head,
How begot, how nourished? Reply,
reply.
It is engendered in the eyes, With gazing fed; and fancy dies
In the cradle where it lies. Let
us all ring fancy's knell: I'll
begin it - Ding, dong, bell. MV.III.2.63-71.
Here fancy = love, desire, infatuation.

There are two
instances in this sonnet of the compositorial
error of their for thy, in
lines 3 and 14.

1.Mine
eye and heart are at a mortal war,

1.
a mortal war = a fight to the death,
a destructive war. divide in the next line suggests
that it is a
fight over a piece of land, the spoils to be divided.

2. How to divide the
conquest of thy sight;

2. conquest
- OED 4 gives: That which
is acquired by force of arms; a possession or acquisition made in war;
a
conquered country, etc.: now restricted to territorial acquisitions,
formerly
also including booty.
Wherefore rejoice? What Conquest brings he home?
What Tributaries follow him to Rome? JC.I. i. 37-8.
Here the conquest acquired is the right to enjoy the sight of the
beloved.

3. Mine eye my heart
thy picture's sight would bar,

3. My eye
seeks to prevent my heart from enjoying
the sight of you. thy
picture =
the image of you which my eye captures. In the context of the remaining
lines of the sonnet, bar probably is used
predominantly in its legal
sense of 'to stay or arrest (an action); to exclude or prevent the
advancement
of (a plea, claim, right.)' OED 5.b.
A Will, that barres the title of thy sonne. John.II.1.192

4. My heart mine eye
the freedom of that right.

4. My
heart (which also holds your picture in
its memory) disputes whether my eye has the right to look at it. Here bars,
or would bar is understood. The
heart seeks to bar the eye the
right to look. The seat of love was the heart, and therefore the
beloved
dwelt there, rather than in the eye. This gives to the heart the right
of
freehold possession. (See the next line).

5. My heart doth
plead
that thou in him dost lie,

5.The
legal terminology continues. The heart
pleads, as in a court of law.

6. A closet never pierced
with crystal eyes,

6. closet
= a small private room,
often used for prayers; a chest for storing valuables. crystal eyes - a similar phrase is used by
Shakespeare in LLL and
TGV and VA.
Ay me! says one; O Jove! the other cries;
One, her hairs were gold, crystal the other's eyes LLL.IV.3.137-8.

This is the
gentleman I told your ladyship
Had come along with me, but that his mistress
Did hold his eyes lock'd in her crystal looks.
TGV.II.4.84-5.

Her eye seen
in the tears, tears in her eye;
Both crystals, where they viewed each other's sorrow - VA.963-4.

Other sonneteers used
the metaphor, which seems
to have been part of the furniture of adornment given to eyes. Thus
William
Smith in his sonnets to Chloris (1596): That day wherein mine eyes cannot her see,
Which is the essence of their crystal sight Sonn. 38.

'Crystal' is used as
a synonym for eyes. The connection
presumably is with the transparency of sight (figuratively) and of
tears,
as also of the eyeball itself, which could be gazed into as if it were
a
crystal.

7. But the
defendant doth
that plea deny,

7. the
defendant = the eye. The appellant
makes the claim that the eye has no claim over the image of the
beloved.
The defendant denies this claim, and puts forward a counter claim in
the
following line.

8. And says in him
thy
fair appearance lies.

8. When
lovers 'look babies' in each other's
eyes, the image of each in miniature appears in the other's eye. Hence
the
eye of the poet could claim that the image of the youth lay within him.

9. To 'cide this title
is impannelled

9. to
'cide = to decide, to settle. This
is an emendation of Q's side which is not
universally adopted. title = claim to a title, right of possession.
impanelled - from impanel, or empanel: to
enrol or set up a body
of jurors.OED. Compare: A Jurie was impaneld streight. 1596 Spenser.
F.Q.VI.vii. 34

10. A quest of thoughts,
all tenants to the heart;

10. a
quest = a body of jurors as for
an inquest; all
tenants to the heart
- As SB points out (p.209, n.10) this is very much a packed
jury, since the eyes have no representatives. The eyes were not capable
of thought and the decision had to be made for them. However one need
not
press the legal analogy too closely, especiaaly as the final verdict
does
not appear to be biased.

11. And by their
verdict
is determined

11. determined
= decided. The -ed
is pronounced, as also in impannelled.

12. The clear
eye's moiety,
and the dear heart's part:

12. moiety
= portion, entitlement. As
in a judicial settlement. Ditto for part.

14. right
= right of possession. The
repetition of the rhyme part and heart
from the previous quatrain
is somewhat lame, except that it probably confuses the issue
deliberately
by constant interchange of hearts and parts. The contrast is drawn
between
the superficial interest of the eye, and the enduring concern of the
heart
for that which is 'inward', hence sincere, real, permanent. Outward
affection
could be forged, but truth and reality cannot be (or so the heart
believes).
See however 137, 138, 148.

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Poems

THE
TEARS OF FANCIE

or
Love Disdained.

SONNET 19

My Hart impos'd this
penance on mine eies,
(Eies the first causers of my harts lamenting) :
That they should weepe till love and fancie dies,
Fond love the last cause of my harts repenting.
Mine eies upon my hart inflict this paine,
(Bold hart that dard to harbour thoughts of love)
That it should love and purchase fell disdaine,
A grievous penance which my hart doth prove.
Mine eies did weepe as hart had them imposed,
My hart did pine as eies had it constrained:
Eies in their teares my paled face disclosed,
Hart in his sighs did show it was disdained.
So th'one did weepe th'other sighed, both grieved,
For both must live and love, both unrelieved.

SONNET 20

My hart accused mine
eies and was offended,
Vowing the cause was in mine eies aspiring:
Mine eies affirmed my hart might well amend it,
If he at first had banisht loves desiring.
Hart said that love did enter at the eies,
And from the eies descended to the hart:
Eies said that in the hart did sparkes arise,
Which kindled flame that wrought the inward smart,
Hart said eies tears might soone have quencht that fl[ame,]
Eies said harts sighs at first might love exile:
So hart the eies and eies the hart did blame,
Whilst both did pine while both the paine did feele.
Hart sighed and bled, eies wept and gaz'd too much, Yet must I gaze
because
I see none such.